Board of Directors

Dr. Birkhead is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Director of the Center for Collaborative HIV Research in Practice and Policy at the School of Public Health, University at Albany, in Albany, NY. Until 2015, he worked at the New York State Department of Health for 27 years in positions of increasing responsibility. From 2007 to 2015 he was Deputy Commissioner for all public health programs. He received his MD degree from the Yale School of Medicine and a Master of Public Health degree from Johns Hopkins University. He is a graduate of the CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service and Preventive Medicine Residency programs and is board certified in internal medicine and preventive medicine.Gus was a member of the CSTE Executive Board in the late 1990s and was the President of CSTE in 1997-1998. He is a recipient of the 2006 CSTE Pump Handle Award. He has also been a CSTE consultant in recent years. Gus served on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)(2001-2005) at the CDC and was a member and chair of the National Vaccine Advisory Committee (NVAC)(2006-2011) at the US Department of Health and Human Services. He is co-author of over 150 publications in the peer-reviewed literature, 2 public health textbooks and 8 book chapters. He is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice and of Public Health Reports. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the EIS Alumni Association and its president during 2021-2022. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the New York State Public Health Association.

LaKesha M. Robinson is an applied public health epidemiology professional with 20 years of experience in technical grant writing and development, special projects, recruiting and management. She is former Senior Deputy of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) and served in several roles for the organization from 2000-2019, including Acting Executive Director, Senior Deputy Director, Chief of Grants Management and Development, and Epidemiology Program Director. In her 20 years with CSTE, the organization experienced rapid growth in membership, national office staff, projects, and the size of its annual budget. LaKesha has also served on several professional boards and projects in her career, including the Rollins School of Public Health Mentorship Program, University of North Carolina Management Academy for Public Health, Council to Improve Foodborne Illness and Response (CIFOR), Clark Atlanta University National Alumni Fundraising Co-Chair, and the Woodward Academy Parent Community Executive Board. Her hobbies include volunteer service, helping others achieve healthy lifestyles, traveling and running. LaKesha and her husband live in the Metro Atlanta area and they have two children.

​Verla S. Neslund is retired from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) where she spent the majority of her career in CDC’s Office of the General Counsel and Office of the Director. She spent several years assigned by CDC to the CDC Foundation, a non‐profit organization created by Congress to support the life‐saving work of CDC through public‐private partnerships with individual donors and philanthropic organizations. Ms. Neslund is an attorney. She received her BA Degree in journalism from the University of Minnesota and her JD Degree from Emory University. She has published in peer reviewed legal, medical and public health journals.

Baoky Vu is a principal of Silverberry Capital, an investment and strategic advisory firm based in Atlanta. Previously, he had served in capacities including director of research and portfolio manager with A. Montag & Associates from 1996 through 2008, and as policy advisor to former State Representative Bjay Pak. He holds degrees from Georgia Tech (BS’90) and Georgetown University (MBA’95). His affiliations include: Governor’s 4th Congressional District Board member of the Technical College System of Georgia, Leadership Georgia (Class of 2008), vice chair of DeKalb County Board of Voter Registration and Elections and most recently, treasurer of the DeKalb County Development Authority. In August 2001, Baoky was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Presidential Advisory Commission on Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders.An active participant in the political process, he was on the Electoral College in the 2016 Presidential Elections and resigned after the 2016 Republican primary. He has appeared as political guest commentator on CNN, MSNBC and has been cited in local and national papers such as USA Today, Washington Times, POLITICO and the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. Baoky has lived in Atlanta for more than 40 years. In 1975, his family left Saigon prior to the collapse of South Vietnam to Communist North Vietnamese forces.

Eddy A. Bresnitz, MD, CM, MSCE, FACP is a board-certified internist, pulmonary and preventive medicine physician. From 2008-2020 he was the Executive Director for Adult Vaccines, Global Vaccines Medical Affairs, Merck Vaccines. Prior to that, he served as the Deputy Commissioner for the Public Health Services Branch (2005-2008) and State Epidemiologist in the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (1999-2008). He returned to public service in the NJ Department of Health from 2020-2021 as Special Advisor to the NJ Government on the COVID-19 response, chairing the statewide COVID-19 Professional Advisory Committee. Prior to joining NJ State Government in 1999, Dr. Bresnitz was a faculty member from 1983-1999 at the MCP Hahnemann (now Drexel University) School of Medicine in Philadelphia, serving for many of those years as Professor and Chairman of the Department of Community and Preventive Medicine. He is currently Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology in the Rutgers University School of Public Health in New Jersey.

Dr. Bresnitz received his MD, CM degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada in 1974, followed by an internship and residency in internal medicine at Montefiore Hospital in New York City. He then served as Director of Emergency Services at the Brooklyn Hospital from 1977-1980. He subsequently completed fellowships in pulmonary medicine and clinical epidemiology at the University of Pennsylvania where he received a Masters of Science in Clinical Epidemiology. During his career in academia, public health and the private sector he has published extensively and made many presentations on clinical and public health issues, and has served on many advisory committees to local, state and national organizations. He is a past president of the US Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists and was a member of the Infectious Disease Committee of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials. He is a long-time resident of Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, and since 2009 has been a member, and past chair, of its Health Advisory Council.

In his previous position at Merck, he led the Global Adult Vaccines Medical Affairs team. He served as the principal liaison for adult immunizations (herpes zoster, pneumococcal disease, influenza, adult hepatitis B) to the US Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and other professional organizations. In his role, he has also made presentations to governmental and professional vaccine and clinician groups around the world.

Dr. DeMaria is a Medical and Laboratory Consultant at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health where he previously served as Medical Director of the Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences, and for many years as State Epidemiologist for Massachusetts. He is a graduate of Boston University and Harvard Medical School. He trained in internal medicine at Montefiore Medical Center in The Bronx, New York and in infectious diseases at Boston City Hospital and the Boston University School of Medicine.

Dr. DeMaria is a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.  He currently is a member or advisor on multiple committees of the Massachusetts Medical Society, as well as serving on the boards of the Grimes King Foundation and the Boston Medical Library, and as President of the Board of Directors of The Public Health Museum.  He is a past president of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists, the Massachusetts Infectious Diseases Society and the Northeast Branch of the American Society for Microbiology. 

Melissa Hines Lowe is a senior marketing research consultant with over 40 years of experience in global advertising and marketing. Her primary focus has been in the development of creative and innovative approaches to consumer marketing. Throughout her consulting career, Melissa has enjoyed being part of global teams and conducting primary research to advance her clients’ understanding of all types of target populations: general consumers, doctors, nurses and other health care professionals, voters, and others. With a base in consumer packaged goods, Melissa has advanced consumer learning for Fortune 100 companies in pharma, food, beverage, tech, politics and more. Her work is valued for positioning, branding, advertising and strategic consumer insights. Close to home, for over ten years, Melissa has been on the Advisory Board and then Board of Directors at Skyland Trail in Atlanta, Georgia. She is co-founder and past president of Ribbons of Hope, a non-profit in Atlanta, Georgia committed to improving the lives of women. Melissa is also chairwoman of the Dean’s Council for the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. She has a passion for learning about and promoting education and the cause of public health. Melissa is a graduate of Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. She is married to Willis Lowe and has two daughters.

Michael Landen, MD, MPH currently serves as a medical epidemiologist consultant with the Virginia Department of Health. Prior to this he was state epidemiologist and Epidemiology and Response Division director with the New Mexico Department of Health.  Michael Landen has also worked as a family physician and clinical director for the Indian Health Service in Arizona and New Mexico, a volunteer physician in Belize, and a CDC Epidemic Intelligence Service officer assigned to the Alaska Department of Health and Social Services.   He has been actively involved with CSTE as an executive board member, tribal epidemiology subcommittee chair and substance use and mental health epidemiology subcommittee chair.

Dr. Mascola is currently the Health Officer for the City of Vernon, California, part-time consultant at the Los Angeles County (LAC) Department of Public Health, and an adjunct Research Professor of Preventive Medicine, Keck School of Medicine and Epidemiology. Until 2016, she was the Chief of the Acute Communicable Disease Control Program for the LAC Department of Public Health. Her program focused on disease surveillance, investigation and control for more than 80 diseases and syndromes in an area of over 4,000 square miles with over 10 million people. She attended St. Louis University Medical School and earned her Masters of Public Health from UCLA. She completed her pediatric residency at CHLA. She is a pediatrician and a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society and Infectious Disease Society of America. She served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer in the Division of Venereal Disease Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), was a field officer in LAC and completed a CDC-sponsored Preventive Medicine Fellowship. She worked internationally for the WHO in Ethiopia, and provided consultations in Brazil, Nepal and Mongolia. Dr. Mascola has extensive experience in epidemiology and infectious disease prevention and control, publishing more than 100 articles, abstracts and book chapters. Dr. Mascola is a recipient of many honors and awards, including CDC’s Charles C. Shepard Science Awards, a Certificate of Appreciation from the FDA and the AAP’s Outstanding Achievement Award from the Council on Community Pediatrics and the Section on Epidemiology in 2009. She has served as Chair of the Section of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology for the America Academy of Pediatrics. She has been a member of Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) since 2008. In the summer of 2009, she was elected by CSTE to be the Infectious Disease Chair, President-elect and Vice President, respectively. She was the first CSTE President from a local health department. She received the CSTE National Epidemiology Pump Handle Award for outstanding achievement in the field of applied epidemiology in 2016. She was also a member of the CDC Board of Scientific Counselors, Office of Infectious Diseases, and an executive board member of the EIS Alumni Association.

Dr. Ostroff retired from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in early 2019.  While at FDA, he served as Deputy Commissioner for Foods and Veterinary Medicine, where he oversaw the agency’s food and animal health activities. He also served as FDA’s Chief Scientist and as the FDA Acting Commissioner on two occasions in both the Obama and Trump administrations.    

Before joining the FDA, from 2007-2013 Dr. Ostroff was the director of the Bureau of Epidemiology at the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Acting Physician General for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.  He came to Pennsylvania after serving as the Department of Health and Human Services Representative to the Pacific Islands in Honolulu after working at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on emerging infectious diseases and outbreak investigations as Associate Director for Epidemiologic Science and Deputy Director of the National Center for Infectious Diseases.  While at CDC, Dr. Ostroff was in the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, attaining the rank of Assistant Surgeon General (Rear Admiral).  He was an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) officer from 1984-86 at the Washington State Department of Health

Dr. Ostroff received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.  He currently holds adjunct professor appointments at Penn State College of Medicine’s Department of Public Health Sciences and the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health’s Department of Epidemiology.